The present invention relates to a method for managing a display device of a portable communication unit as well as a portable communication unit incorporating a display device for displaying graphic content.
Modern portable and mobile communication units such as mobile telephones allow, besides basic communication functions, the execution of applications, i.e. software programs or software applications, which are executed by a processor in the mobile phone. Basic functions such as system, network and service management as well as applications share the available display devices for their visual output. Moreover, in most cases, the visual output surface is not split into several physical units or devices and various applications have to share one physical display. If this display is being used by an application, no visual output surface of the display is normally available to other applications and basic functions for outputting their graphic output content. There is only the possibility of overwriting the display areas of the application or foreground applications which were executed previously. However, this is usually distracting and inconvenient for the user because it hampers the user when executing foreground applications.